Valoración de Indicadores de calidad para el diseño e implementación de tecnologías de manejo en Luvisoles de la zona norte de la provincia de Las Tunas, Cuba

La calidad del suelo es una herramienta de evaluación que puede facilitar la adaptación de prácticas de manejo que promuevan sistemas agropecuarios sostenibles. La investigación de este trabajo se inició con un diagnóstico participativo en 12 comunidades rurales de la provincia de Las Tunas en el año 2009 en el cual los productores identificaron los puntos críticos de calidad de los suelos de la región y sirvieron de punta de partida para seleccionar las variables físicas, químicas y biológicas a determinar en cinco sistemas de uso agropecuario (arboleda, pasto natural, pasto cultivado y dos sistemas silvopastoriles) en la zona La Veguita, municipio Las Tunas. El sistema arboleda se utilizó como referencia de las propiedades naturales del suelo. El pasto natural se distingue por el desarrollo de especies de baja productividad, sin embargo el pasto cultivado está representado por Pennisetum purpureum vc CUBA CT-115, y constituye una contribución a la tecnología de bancos de biomasa, para utilizarse en el pastoreo durante la seca. Los sistemas silvopastoriles están representados por Leucaena leucocephala Lam. en franjas y Panicum maximun vc. Likoni, los que se diferencian en su diseño, manejo y propiedades mineralógicas. El objetivo fundamental fue valorar indicadores de calidad de los suelos Luvisoles háplicos sobre granitoides, para diseñar e implementar tecnologías de manejo que permitan incrementar la capacidad agroproductiva de los suelos. Mediante el análisis de componentes principales se obtuvo un conjunto mínimo de indicadores físicos, químicos y biológicos que proporcionaron información útil referente a los procesos edáficos y se integraron para determinar un índice de calidad. En el sistema de uso, caracterizado por el pasto cultivado (Pennisetum purpureum) se estableció, en parcelas experimentales, un ensayo de corta duración, en el que se comparó el laboreo tradicional y el laboreo sin inversión del prisma, con y sin aplicación de compost. En ambos sistemas de labranza se evaluó el desarrollo del cultivo e indicadores de calidad del suelo. Los resultados mostraron que del conjunto de indicadores edáficos estudiados se seleccionaron 6 en los que la capacidad de intercambio catiónico, materia orgánica, potasio intercambiable, contenido de arena, densidad aparente y biomasa de lombrices explicaron la mayor variabilidad y sirvieron de base para evaluar la calidad de estos suelos. Se establecieron valores umbrales de referencia de indicadores de calidad, que permitirán evaluar y monitorear los sistemas de uso y manejo de la región. El sistema Silvopastoril 2 resultó el de mayor índice de calidad de los suelos tomando como referencia la arboleda por su condición natural. El manejo silvopastoril influyó predominantemente en mejores resultados productivos pero las características edáficas principalmente físicas, deben definir su diseño y manejo. El sistema de pastos cultivados con Pennisetum purpureum vc CUBA CT 115, alcanzó la mayor acumulación de carbono orgánico, sin embargo, el manejo limitó su calidad física y el funcionamiento productivo del sistema. De manera general los sistemas de uso no garantizan un índice de la calidad del suelo, puesto que se ve afectado por las propiedades edáficas y las prácticas de manejo. En el ámbito biológico, las lombrices constituyeron los organismos más numerosos con predominio en los sistemas silvopastoriles y arboleda. Los valores superiores de densidad y biomasa de oligoquetos y mayor diversidad de otros individuos de la macrofauna, indican que la presencia de árboles en los pastizales de gramínea potencia y diversifican las comunidades de macroinvertebrados del suelo. El sistema de labranza sin inversión del prisma propicia una mejor calidad física del suelo, manteniendo el carbono e incrementando los rendimientos del Penisetum purpureum cv CUBA CT 115. La labranza tradicional, a base de aradura y grada, afecta a los contenidos de materia orgánica en el corto plazo y mantiene capas compactas en el horizonte subyacente, además influye desfavorablemente al flujo del aire, agua y al desarrollo radical de los pastos. La aplicación de compost favoreció mejores resultados productivos en ambas tecnologías de manejo. Los resultados alcanzados recomiendan la implantación de tecnologías de manejo conservacionistas y la aplicación de materiales orgánicos que restituyan los elementos nutricionales requeridos por los pastos, por lo que no se justifica la continuidad del uso de prácticas tradicionales de laboreo con inversión del prisma que se realizan actualmente. ABSTRACT The soil quality is an assessment tool, which could facilitate the adaptation of management practices that promote sustainable agricultural systems. The present investigation was carried out with a participatory diagnostic in twelve rural communities from Las Tunas province in 2009, in which producers identified the critical soil quality points of region and served as a starting point to select the physical, chemical and biological variables, in order to determine on five agricultural used systems (grove, natural grass, cultivated grass and two silvopastoral systems) in La Veguita zone from municipality Las Tunas. The system grove was used as reference of natural soil properties. The natural grass is distinguished by the development of low-productivity species, however the cultivated grass is represented by Pennisetum purpureum vc CUBA CT-115, and is a contribution to the biomass banks technology, in order to use in grazing during the dry season. The silvopastoral systems are represented by Leucaena leucocephala Lam. in stripes and Panicum maximum cv. Likoni, which differ in their design, handling and mineralogical properties. The main aim of this study was to assess the quality indicators for haplic Luvisols on granitoids for designing and implementing management technologies in order to increase the agroproductive capacity of soils. A minimal set of physical, chemical and biological indicators by Principal Component Analysis was obtained, which provided some useful information regarding soil processes and their integration for determining an index of quality. In the use system, characterized for the cultivated grass (Pennisetum purpureum) a short term assay in experimental plots was established, where the traditional and prism without inversion tillage were compared with and without compost application. In both tillage systems were evaluated the crop development and soil quality indicators. The results showed that the studied soil indicators set, six were selected, specifically the ones with exchangeable cationic capacity, organic matter, interchangeable potassium, sand content, bulk density and earthworm biomass, which explained the higher variability and served as the basis for evaluating the soil quality. The Reference threshold values of quality indicators for evaluating and monitoring the use and management systems from the region were established. The silvopastoral system 2 had the highest quality soil index, taking of reference the grove system for its natural condition. The silvopastoral management influenced on better productive results, but the soil characteristics, particularly the physical properties to be defined its design and management. However, the cultivated grass system with Pennisetum purpureum vc CUBA CT 115, reached the greatest accumulation of organic carbon. However, the management limited its physical quality and productive performance of the system. In addition, the use systems do not guarantee an index of soil quality, since it is affected by soil properties and management practices. From the biological aspect, the earthworms are the most numerous organisms on the silvopastoral systems and grove. The higher values of oligochaetes biomass and density and the greater diversity of other organisms from macrofauna indicate that the tree presence on the pasture grasses allows enhancing and diversifying soil macro invertebrate communities. The non-inversion prism tillage system provides a better physical quality of soil, maintaining the carbon content and increasing the yields of Penisetum purpureum vc CUBA CT 115. The traditional tillage, using the plowing and harrowing affects the organic matter content in a short term and keeps on compact layers of underlying horizon, and adversely affects the air and water flow, and pasture radical development. The compost application favored the best production results in both management technologies. The results obtained recommend the implementation of conservation management technologies and the application of organic materials that restore the nutritional elements required by the pasture, so it does not justify the continued use of traditional tillage practices with prism investment that are currently being made.

Design and implementation of a modular interface to integrate CLP and tabled execution

Logic programming (LP) is a family of high-level programming languages which provides high expressive power. With LP, the programmer writes the properties of the result and / or executable specifications instead of detailed computation steps. Logic programming systems which feature tabled execution and constraint logic programming have been shown to increase the declarativeness and efficiency of Prolog, while at the same time making it possible to write very expressive programs. Tabled execution avoids infinite failure in some cases, while improving efficiency in programs which repeat computations. CLP reduces the search tree and brings the power of solving (in)equations over arbitrary domains. Similarly to the LP case, CLP systems can also benefit from the power of tabling. Previous implementations which take ful advantage of the ideas behind tabling (e.g., forcing suspension, answer subsumption, etc. wherever it is necessary to avoid recomputation and terminate whenever possible) did not offer a simple, well-documented, easy-to-understand interface. This would be necessary to make the integratation of arbitrary CLP solvers into existing tabling systems possible. This clearly hinders a more widespread usage of the combination of both facilities. In this thesis we examine the requirements that a constraint solver must fulfill in order to be interfaced with a tabling system. We propose and implement a framework, which we have called Mod TCLP, with a minimal set of operations (e.g., entailment checking and projection) which the constraint solver has to provide to the tabling engine. We validate the design of Mod TCLP by a series of use cases: we re-engineer a previously existing tabled constrain domain (difference constraints) which was connected in an ad-hoc manner with the tabling engine in Ciao Prolog; we integrateHolzbauer’s CLP(Q) implementationwith Ciao Prolog’s tabling engine; and we implement a constraint solver over (finite) lattices. We evaluate its performance with several benchmarks that implement a simple abstract interpreter whose fixpoint is reached by means of tabled execution, and whose domain operations are handled by the constraint over (finite) lattices, where TCLP avoids recomputing subsumed abstractions.---ABSTRACT---La programación lógica con restricciones (CLP) y la tabulación son extensiones de la programación lógica que incrementan la declaratividad y eficiencia de Prolog, al mismo tiempo que hacen posible escribir programasmás expresivos. Las implementaciones anteriores que integran completamente ambas extensiones, incluyendo la suspensión de la ejecución de objetivos siempre que sea necesario, la implementación de inclusión (subsumption) de respuestas, etc., en todos los puntos en los que sea necesario para evitar recomputaciones y garantizar la terminación cuando sea posible, no han proporcionan una interfaz simple, bien documentada y fácil de entender. Esta interfaz es necesaria para permitir integrar resolutores de CLP arbitrarios en el sistema de tabulación. Esto claramente dificulta un uso más generalizado de la integración de ambas extensiones. En esta tesis examinamos los requisitos que un resolutor de restricciones debe cumplir para ser integrado con un sistema de tabulación. Proponemos un esquema (y su implementación), que hemos llamadoMod TCLP, que requiere un reducido conjunto de operaciones (en particular, y entre otras, entailment y proyección de almacenes de restricciones) que el resolutor de restricciones debe ofrecer al sistema de tabulación. Hemos validado el diseño de Mod TCLP con una serie de casos de uso: la refactorización de un sistema de restricciones (difference constraints) previamente conectado de un modo ad-hoc con la tabulación de Ciao Prolog; la integración del sistema de restricciones CLP(Q) de Holzbauer; y la implementación de un resolutor de restricciones sobre retículos finitos. Hemos evaluado su rendimiento con varios programas de prueba, incluyendo la implementación de un intérprete abstracto que alcanza su punto fijo mediante el sistema de tabulación y en el que las operaciones en el dominio son realizadas por el resolutor de restricciones sobre retículos (finitos) donde TCLP evita la recomputación de valores abstractos de las variables ya contenidos en llamadas anteriores.

Contextual visual localization: cascaded submap classification, optimized saliency detection, and fast view matching

In this paper, we present a novel coarse-to-fine visual localization approach: contextual visual localization. This approach relies on three elements: (i) a minimal-complexity classifier for performing fast coarse localization (submap classification); (ii) an optimized saliency detector which exploits the visual statistics of the submap; and (iii) a fast view-matching algorithm which filters initial matchings with a structural criterion. The latter algorithm yields fine localization. Our experiments show that these elements have been successfully integrated for solving the global localization problem. Context, that is, the awareness of being in a particular submap, is defined by a supervised classifier tuned for a minimal set of features. Visual context is exploited both for tuning (optimizing) the saliency detection process, and to select potential matching views in the visual database, close enough to the query view.

Multiparametric evaluation of dysphonic severity

In recent years, the multiparametric approach for evaluating perceptual rating of voice quality has been advocated. This study evaluates the accuracy of predicting perceived overall severity of voice quality with a minimal set of aerodynamic, voice range profile (phonetogram), and acoustic perturbation measures. One hundred and twelve dysphonic persons (93 women and 19 men) with laryngeal pathologies and 41 normal controls (35 women and six men) with normal voices participated in this study. Perceptual severity judgement was carried out by four listeners rating the G (overall grade) parameter of the GRBAS scale.(1) The minimal set of instrumental measures was selected based on the ability of the measure to discriminate between dysphonic and normal voices, and to attain at least a moderate correlation with perceived overall severity. Results indicated that perceived overall severity was best described by maximum phonation time of sustained /a/, peak intraoral pressure of the consonant-vowel /pi/ strings production, voice range profile area, and acoustic jitter. Direct-entry discriminant function analysis revealed that these four voice measures in combination correctly predicted 67.3% of perceived overall severity levels.

On the Time Complexity of the Problem Related to Reducts of Consistent Decision Tables

In recent years, rough set approach computing issues concerning reducts of decision tables have attracted the attention of many researchers. In this paper, we present the time complexity of an algorithm computing reducts of decision tables by relational database approach. Let DS = (U, C ∪ {d}) be a consistent decision table, we say that A ⊆ C is a relative reduct of DS if A contains a reduct of DS. Let s = be a relation schema on the attribute set C ∪ {d}, we say that A ⊆ C is a relative minimal set of the attribute d if A contains a minimal set of d. Let Qd be the family of all relative reducts of DS, and Pd be the family of all relative minimal sets of the attribute d on s. We prove that the problem whether Qd ⊆ Pd is co-NP-complete. However, the problem whether Pd ⊆ Qd is in P .

The reliability, accuracy and minimal detectable difference of a multi-segment kinematic model of the foot-shoe complex

Kinematic models are commonly used to quantify foot and ankle kinematics, yet no marker sets or models have been proven reliable or accurate when wearing shoes. Further, the minimal detectable difference of a developed model is often not reported. We present a kinematic model that is reliable, accurate and sensitive to describe the kinematics of the foot–shoe complex and lower leg during walking gait. In order to achieve this, a new marker set was established, consisting of 25 markers applied on the shoe and skin surface, which informed a four segment kinematic model of the foot–shoe complex and lower leg. Three independent experiments were conducted to determine the reliability, accuracy and minimal detectable difference of the marker set and model. Inter-rater reliability of marker placement on the shoe was proven to be good to excellent (ICC = 0.75–0.98) indicating that markers could be applied reliably between raters. Intra-rater reliability was better for the experienced rater (ICC = 0.68–0.99) than the inexperienced rater (ICC = 0.38–0.97). The accuracy of marker placement along each axis was <6.7 mm for all markers studied. Minimal detectable difference (MDD90) thresholds were defined for each joint; tibiocalcaneal joint – MDD90 = 2.17–9.36°, tarsometatarsal joint – MDD90 = 1.03–9.29° and the metatarsophalangeal joint – MDD90 = 1.75–9.12°. These thresholds proposed are specific for the description of shod motion, and can be used in future research designed at comparing between different footwear.

Destination brand performance measurement over time: Tracking consumer perceptions of a competitive set of destinations over a 10 year period

There has been a paucity of research published in relation to the temporal aspect of destination image change over time. Given increasing investments in destination branding, research is needed to enhance understanding of how to monitor destination brand performance, of which destination image is the core construct, over time. This article reports the results of four studies tracking brand performance of a competitive set of five destinations, between 2003 and 2012. Results indicate minimal changes in perceptions held of the five destinations of interest over the 10 years, supporting the assertion of Gartner (1986) and Gartner and Hunt (1987) that destination image change will only occur slowly over time. While undertaken in Australia, the research approach provides DMOs in other parts of the world with a practical tool for evaluating brand performance over time; in terms of measures of effectiveness of past marketing communications, and indicators of future performance.

Design of crosspoint-irredundant PLAs using minimal number of control inputs

The problem of determining a minimal number of control inputs for converting a programmable logic array (PLA) with undetectable faults to crosspoint-irredundant PLA for testing has been formulated as a nonstandard set covering problem. By representing subsets of sets as cubes, this problem has been reformulated as familiar problems. It is noted that this result has significance because a crosspoint-irredundant PLA can be converted to a completely testable PLA in a straightforward fashion, thus achieving very good fault coverage and easy testability.

Real-time monitoring of critical nodes with minimal number of Phasor Measurement Units

This paper presents a method for placement of Phasor Measurement Units, ensuring the monitoring of vulnerable buses which are obtained based on transient stability analysis of the overall system. Real-time monitoring of phase angles across different nodes, which indicates the proximity to instability, the very purpose will be well defined if the PMUs are placed at buses which are more vulnerable. The issue is to identify the key buses where the PMUs should be placed when the transient stability prediction is taken into account considering various disturbances. Integer Linear Programming technique with equality and inequality constraints is used to find out the optimal placement set with key buses identified from transient stability analysis. Results on IEEE-14 bus system are presented to illustrate the proposed approach.

The Tetrablock as a Spectral Set

The tetrablock, roughly speaking, is the set of all linear fractional maps that map the open unit disc to itself. A formal definition of this inhomogeneous domain is given below. This paper considers triples of commuting bounded operators (A,B,P) that have the tetrablock as a spectral set. Such a triple is named a tetrablock contraction. The motivation comes from the success of model theory in another inhomogeneous domain, namely, the symmetrized bidisc F. A pair of commuting bounded operators (S,P) with Gamma as a spectral set is called a Gamma-contraction, and always has a dilation. The two domains are related intricately as the Lemma 3.2 below shows. Given a triple (A, B, P) as above, we associate with it a pair (F-1, F-2), called its fundamental operators. We show that (A,B,P) dilates if the fundamental operators F-1 and F-2 satisfy certain commutativity conditions. Moreover, the dilation space is no bigger than the minimal isometric dilation space of the contraction P. Whether these commutativity conditions are necessary, too, is not known. what we have shown is that if there is a tetrablock isometric dilation on the minimal isometric dilation space of P. then those commutativity conditions necessarily get imposed on the fundamental operators. En route, we decipher the structure of a tetrablock unitary (this is the candidate as the dilation triple) and a tertrablock isometry (the restriction of a tetrablock unitary to a joint invariant sub-space). We derive new results about r-contractions and apply them to tetrablock contractions. The methods applied are motivated by 11]. Although the calculations are lengthy and more complicated, they beautifully reveal that the dilation depends on the mutual relationship of the two fundamental operators, so that certain conditions need to be satisfied. The question of whether all tetrablock contractions dilate or not is unresolved.

Hybrid Working Set Algorithm for SVM Learning With a Kernel Coprocessor on FPGA

Support vector machines (SVM) are a popular class of supervised models in machine learning. The associated compute intensive learning algorithm limits their use in real-time applications. This paper presents a fully scalable architecture of a coprocessor, which can compute multiple rows of the kernel matrix in parallel. Further, we propose an extended variant of the popular decomposition technique, sequential minimal optimization, which we call hybrid working set (HWS) algorithm, to effectively utilize the benefits of cached kernel columns and the parallel computational power of the coprocessor. The coprocessor is implemented on Xilinx Virtex 7 field-programmable gate array-based VC707 board and achieves a speedup of upto 25x for kernel computation over single threaded computation on Intel Core i5. An application speedup of upto 15x over software implementation of LIBSVM and speedup of upto 23x over SVMLight is achieved using the HWS algorithm in unison with the coprocessor. The reduction in the number of iterations and sensitivity of the optimization time to variation in cache size using the HWS algorithm are also shown.

Rough set based feature selection : A review

Feature selection aims to determine a minimal feature subset from a problem domain while retaining a suitably high accuracy in representing the original features. Rough set theory (RST) has been used as such a tool with much success. RST enables the discovery of data dependencies and the reduction of the number of attributes contained in a dataset using the data alone, requiring no additional information. This chapter describes the fundamental ideas behind RST-based approaches and reviews related feature selection methods that build on these ideas. Extensions to the traditional rough set approach are discussed, including recent selection methods based on tolerance rough sets, variable precision rough sets and fuzzy-rough sets. Alternative search mechanisms are also highly important in rough set feature selection. The chapter includes the latest developments in this area, including RST strategies based on hill-climbing, genetic algorithms and ant colony optimization.

Finding Rough Set Reducts with SAT.

R. Jensen, Q. Shen and A. Tuson, 'Finding Rough Set Reducts with SAT,' Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Rough Sets, Fuzzy Sets, Data Mining and Granular Computing, LNAI 3641, pp. 194-203, 2005.

A bargaining set for monotonic simple games based on external and internal stability

A new bargaining set based on notions of both internal and external stability is developed in the context of endogenous coalition formation. It allows to make an explicit distinction between within-group and outside-group deviation options. This type of distinction is not present in current bargaining sets. For the class of monotonic proper simple games, the outcomes in the bargaining set are characterized. Furthermore, it is shown that the bargaining set of any homogeneous weighted majority game contains an outcome for which the underlying coalition structure consists of a minimal winning coalition and its complement.